Outreach to the BSU Community

Overview

We use this place to chronicle campus-wide activities conducted in conjunction with the self-study process. As time passes, you will find summaries of what we have done, documents that were shared, and comments that were collected as part of those activities.

Fall Semester, 2008

Students understanding our new mission is an important part of the self-study process. We got the Resident Advisors from the residence halls involved at a workshop on October 9.

Dr. John Taylor from HLC visited our campus on October 15 and 16.

Spring Semester, 2009

In early January we launched our poster campaign as part of the process of familiarizing
the campus to its new mission. The first poster highlighted the three
main words of the mission: engage, embrace, educate.

From January 28-30, the Student Senate collected student commentary on BSU's mission. They had a wide range of things to say about the mission.

On February 16, we held an All-Campus meeting. Karen Kirkendall from the University of Illinois, Springfield joined us to facilitate a discussion of the centrality of mission as part of the continuing accreditation process. Attendees generated ideas about the three emphases of our mission.

Starting in late February, we continued our process of outreach to students by meeting with a variety of students at Resident Hall Council meetings. We modeled these meetings after the RA workshop held in October, getting students to think about the nature of BSU's mission, why students should care about BSU's mission, and how the mission statement resonates with what happens at BSU. As part of this process, we distributed door knob hangers with the mission printed on one side and a "Do Not Disturb" message printed on the other.

HLC Steering Committee Co-chairs visited numerous departments to give an update on the HLC process and remind people of the nature of a site visit.

In early February, we began displaying the third and final version of the Mission Poster. They arrived just days before the Mock Site Visit. Just after the Mock Site Visit, the first issue of HLC Update was distributed to campus. It highlighted material from the Criterion One chapter of the Self-Study. The second issue of HLC Update was distributed to campus the next week. It highlighted findings from the Criterion Two chapter of the Self-Study. We distributed the third issue, focused on Criterion Three, on February 26 and the fourth issue, focused on Criterion Four, went out just before Spring Break. As the campus returned from Spring Break, they received the fifth issue of HLC Update, which focused on Criterion Five.